‘Do we want to win, or do we want to lose.’ Bryan Station makes a stand and a statement.
The moment of the game arrived at Bryan Station’s goal line with 2:55 to play.
Madison Central had just completed an 11-play 67-yard drive with a Brady Hensley 2-yard plunge to cut the Defenders’ lead to 14-13. Of those 11 plays, 10 were Hensley rushes.
The Indians, not content to tie the game, came out for a two-point conversion to try for the lead, and a Bryan Station offsides penalty narrowed the attempt from the 2- to the 1-yard line. Hensley lined up to take a direct snap just as he’d done for the TD run seconds earlier.
Clearly, it was gut-check time in this district battle between two of Class 6A’s best teams — No. 5 Bryan Station and No. 8 Madison Central — according to the latest Associated Press poll.
“We had to look deep inside ourselves and ask ourselves, ‘Do we want to win, or do we want to lose?’” Bryan Station lineman Yedideyah Sledge said. “No one likes losing, so we said, ‘We’ve got to pick this up.’ That’s what we did.”
Sledge pierced the point of attack on the right side and clogged the running lane. Defensive end Antonio Davis met Hensley in the backfield and the rest of Bryan Station’s defense collapsed around him for a 2-yard loss.
Conversion failed.
Three plays later on the ensuing Bryan Station drive, quarterback Trenton Cutwright hit JaeVon Hurt on a slant across the middle. As his trailing defender fell, Hurt’s eyes turned up field and saw nothing in front of him but the end zone.
The 78-yard touchdown was the third big pass play of the night for Cutwright and the second to Hurt, and it helped Bryan Station defeat Madison Central 21-13 to secure the top seed in the district and home-field advantage through at least the first two rounds of the Class 6A playoffs.
“That’s a great team, and we’ve got a good team. And you’ve got to earn it. There are no easy passes. I’ve learned that the last two years here. We’ve won some games, but they haven’t been that easy,” Bryan Station Coach Phillip Hawkins said. “I’ve been talking to them about willpower and saying to them that there are battles where we’ve got to out-will the other team sometimes.”
Holding a 14-7 lead, a critical penalty and a missed field goal kept Bryan Station from turning a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line into points near the end of the third quarter. Bryan Station’s next two drives could not generate a first down, setting up Madison Central’s comeback.
Even after stopping the two-point conversion, Cutwright knew the Defenders’ offense had to get going in the final three minutes.
“Coach had been telling us the slant’s been open all night. We needed that third-and-7. We needed that 7 yards at least for the first down,” Cutwright said. “I saw (Hurt) pass the linebacker and I just hit him and he made something happen.
“I’ve got to give it up to my defense for keeping their head straight and getting the stop we needed. We just finished the job for them. They’ve been doing it for us all season. So all we could do is just finish that game for them.”
Cutwright completed seven of 20 passes for 251 yards and had an interception. Hurt had three catches for 154 yards. The two opened the scoring on a similar play for 58 yards in the first quarter.
Madison Central answered with a 27-yard TD run by Hensley to tie the game in the second quarter after Brock Eads picked off Cutwright in Defenders’ territory.
Later in the first half, Cutwright scrambled right and found J’Marious Lindsay who had broken off his route and cut back toward his QB. Lindsay caught the pass and turned upfield for a 67-yard score and a 14-7 lead.
“The one thing I know here is if we can get the ball in the kids’ hands, they know what to do with it,” Hawkins said of his playmaking running backs and wide receivers. “It’s an electric group when they’re electric. But sometimes it’s a struggle. … They’re still learning their way, but they’ll fight. I’ll give them that much, they will fight.”
Bryan Station (8-1) next faces city rival Paul Laurence Dunbar at home in the final week of the regular season — an important game against the team that beat the Defenders in the region finals last year. The Defenders will get Clark County the first week of the playoffs. Madison Central (7-2) travels to Class 5A Southwestern before their first-round playoff game against district three-seed Oldham County.
This story was originally published October 23, 2021 at 8:34 AM.
